Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of minimum pricing for alcohol.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Any new plans to reduce alcohol harm will be announced in Parliament in the normal way. There are no such plans at present.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) tackle the use of nitazenes and (b) help ensure that drug users are safe in the context of trends in the use of those drugs.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
A cross-Government taskforce is co-ordinating the response to the risk synthetic opioids, including nitazenes, pose to the UK. The Taskforce includes officials from the Home Office, Department for Health and Social Care, National Crime Agency, National Police Chiefs’ Council and Border Force. Additionally, the NCA, working closely with policing, Border Force and international partners is ensuring that all lines of enquiry are prioritised and vigorously pursued to stem any supply of nitazenes to and within the UK.
High quality drug treatment and recovery services are crucial to the response. Across England, there has been investment in drug treatment and recovery services working to prevent drug-related deaths and harms.
In line with recent advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, the Government intends to control a group of harmful nitazenes as Class A drugs via a generic definition under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, subject to parliamentary approval. The generic definition will control more nitazenes than current legislation does, reducing the opportunity for criminals to circumvent sanctions under the 1971 Act. We will be laying these amendments as a matter of urgency.
The UK’s early warning and surveillance system has been enhanced and captures multiple sets of data including ambulance data, post-mortem toxicology, drug seizures and wastewater analysis among other sources. Findings will be shared with law enforcement and public health agencies, at national and local level, meaning that rapid action can be taken in communities where harmful substances such as nitazenes are detected.
We are also working with the NPCC to expand provision of the lifesaving opioid antidote naloxone to police forces to reduce the risk of death from an opioid overdose.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing harm reduction centres for drug users.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
No recent assessment has been made of the potential merits of introducing ‘harm reduction centres’ for drug users, including any implications for UK drug legislation. Such centres are sometimes referred to as drug consumption rooms or safer consumption facilities and are understood to be locations where drug users could lawfully consume controlled drugs that they have purchased from criminal dealers.
Specifically in relation to Scotland, the Government will not interfere with the lawfully exercised prosecutorial independence of the Lord Advocate in respect of a pilot drug consumption room in Scotland. We will consider any evidence emerging from evaluation of that pilot in due course.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a humanitarian visa for people from Gaza to receive medical aid in the UK.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Currently, those seeking to come to the UK for private medical treatment, along with their family members, can apply for a visitor visa and consideration will be given to compelling, compassionate and exceptional circumstances.
The Word Heath Organisation (WHO) position is that people who are medically evacuated should stay as close to home as possible, so that they are likely amongst those who understand their language and culture, and so that their return home, when ready, is easier.
The Government will be reviewing the current arrangements as quickly as possible to ensure that, where it is appropriate for children to travel, this route is effective.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Oral Statement of 18 July 2024 on Prison Capacity, Official Report columns 175-177, if she will commission a review into the adequacy of (a) the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, (b) the Public Order Act 2023 and (c) sentencing guidelines for protesters arrested following climate protests.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is currently preparing a report on the operation of a number of the public order measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (PCSC Act). This was a commitment made in parliament when the Act was passed. All other measures in the PCSC Act 2022 will be subject to the standard post-legislative scrutiny period, which will be carried out according to the standard timeframe of three to five years after Royal Assent.
In addition, the previous Government committed to carrying out post-legislative scrutiny of the Public Order Act 2023 two years after it received Royal Assent rather than the usual three to five years, in line with the recommendation made by the Home Affairs Select Committee. That work will begin in May 2025.
Sentencing guidelines are developed by the independent Sentencing Council for England and Wales. The guidelines produced provide the Court with guidance on factors that should be considered, which may affect the sentence given. The Council monitors and evaluates all definitive guidelines, as per its statutory duty to do so. The Sentencing Council is independent of parliament and Government, and therefore set its own workplan; an indicative business plan is published annually online.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to enable children brought to the UK by the UNHCR to be reunited with their parents.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Keeping families together as part of the resettlement process is a priority. Children resettled through the UK Resettlement Scheme will usually arrive in the UK with their parents or carers.
As part of UNHCR’s assessment, UNHCR will first seek to reunify unaccompanied children with parents or family members within the host region or wherever their family members may be. For unaccompanied children, UNHCR will refer a child to the UK or another participating State should they consider that it would be in the child’s best interest to be resettled.
The government provides a safe and legal route to bring families together through its refugee family reunion policy. This allows individuals with protection status in the UK to sponsor their partner or children to reunite with them, provided they formed part of the family unit before their sponsor fled the country of their habitual residence in order to seek protection. We will seek to ensure that this route works effectively.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing people from Gaza who are studying in the UK to be able to bring their families to the UK.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is determined to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, rapidly increase aid, and the return of all hostages. The government is keeping all existing pathways under review in response to events.
The current position is that Palestinians who wish to join family members in the UK can do so via the existing range of routes available to work, study or settle/join family in the UK.
Any application for a UK visa will be assessed against the requirements of the Immigration Rules. Immediate family members of British citizens and those settled in the UK who wish to come and live in the UK can apply under one of the existing family visa routes.
Students from Gaza seeking to bring dependants to the UK may do so where they meet the relevant requirements of Appendix Student of the immigration rules.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential role of gender discrimination in (a) violence and (b) sexual violence against women and girls.
Answered by Laura Farris
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will implement a public health approach to preventing (a) violence and (b) sexual violence for (i) boys and (ii) men.
Answered by Laura Farris
Since 2019, the Government has invested over £160m in 20 Violence Reduction Unit’s (VRUs) in England and Wales. VRUs are expected to deliver a ‘whole system’, public health approach to tackling violence, bringing together key partners to identify the local drivers and root-causes of serious violence and implementing a multi-agency response to them. VRUs are supported to adhere to the six key pillars of the public health approach to reduce violence, as set out by Public Health England (now OHID).
The Youth Endowment Fund was established in 2019, which will invest £200m over 10 years to identify, and build an evidence base around, what works in diverting children and young people away from involvement in serious violence and making this information accessible to practitioners.
The Serious Violence Duty introduced through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (PCSC 2022), requires a range of specified authorities, such as, the police, local government, youth offending teams, health, and probation services, to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence within their local communities, enabled by new powers to share data and information. Specified authorities are encouraged to take a public health approach in executing their responsibilities under the Act. The PCSC Act does not define serious violence for the purposes of the Duty but makes clear that local areas may also consider domestic abuse and sexual offences as part of their strategies, particularly where preventative activity is directed at risk factors which are shared between these crimes and public space youth violence.
The Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (published July 2021) and Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan (published March 2022) contain over 100 cross government commitments and take a whole system approach to tackling these crimes. Commitments in these strategies cover all victims, including men and boys.
In 2021, we published the Rape Review Action Plan and set out a series of commitments to deliver cross-system improvements in the criminal justice response to rape. The National Operating Model, developed through Operation Soteria, provides policing with new training and tools to build strong cases and understand patterns of sexual offending, and seeks to support officers to building stronger cases, understand sexual offending behaviour and ultimately identify and disrupt offenders at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how the UK Border Force are identifying synthetic drugs being imported into the UK; and what steps is he taking to ensure effective monitoring of this.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Tackling illicit drugs, including potent synthetic opioids, is a priority for the Government, and through our 10-year drugs strategy ‘From Harm to Hope’ the Home Office is taking action to tackle drug supply and reduce demand.
Border Force uses intelligence from law enforcement and sources overseas to target action at the border and identify shipments for examination.
The cross-Government Synthetic Opioids Taskforce is working with partners such as the NCA, the Department of Health and Social Care and the National Police Chiefs Council to deliver an evidence-based response to the risk posed by synthetic opioids, monitor the effectiveness of the response, including at the border, and to implement effective action to stem the demand and supply of these dangerous substances.